Mahmoud Abbas:
- "The Bible says that the Palestinians existed
before Abraham"
- "The invention of the Canaanite-Palestinian
alphabet [was] more than 6,000 years ago"
Abbas'
advisor claims
5,000-year
Palestinian history in the land:
Mahmoud Al-Habbash:
- "We have been here for the last 5,000 years, and
have not left this land"
- "Our forefathers are the monotheist Canaanites and
Jebusites"
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In
order to make Palestinians believe that they have an ancient history that
precedes Jewish history in the land of Israel, Palestinian Authority leaders
regularly fabricate tales of a 5,000- or sometimes 6,000-year-old Palestinian
nation. Recently, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash
each spoke on two different occasions about a Palestinian nation that they
claim preceded Abraham in the land of Canaan. Abbas even misrepresented the
Bible by claiming biblical support for his claims:
Mahmoud Abbas: "Our narrative says that we were in this land since
before Abraham. I am not saying it. The Bible says it. The Bible says, in these
words, that the Palestinians existed before Abraham. So why don't you recognize
my right?"
[Official PA TV, March 21, 2016]
Abbas'
statement about the Bible is false. The only Biblical reference Abbas could be
talking about is the text that Abraham dwelt "many days in the land of the
Philistines." (Genesis 21: 34). However, the Philistines have no
connection to today's Palestinian Arabs. The Philistines were a people of Greek
origin who settled in the land of Canaan and lived beside the Israelite tribes.
The Palestinians who are Arabs could not have had ancestors in the land from
biblical times predating Israelite and Judean statehood because Arabs only
arrived in the land in 637 CE with the Muslim invasion. Needless to say, the
"Palestinians" are not mentioned in the Bible.
Significantly,
Abbas says that this "fact" - which is a fabrication - is what gives
Palestinians a "right" to the land.
Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Mahmoud Abbas' advisor on Religious and
Islamic Affairs and Supreme Shari'ah Judge, also repeated the false claim about
a 5,000-year-old Palestinian people who predated Abraham, in last week's Friday
sermon:
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"They
[the Jews] are thieves who stole the land, and who want to steal the history,
but history cannot change and cannot be falsified. The facts bear witness to
it. We have been here for the last 5,000 years, and have not left this land. We
have not left this land. Our forefathers are the monotheist Canaanites and
Jebusites. They are the ones who built Jerusalem, before Abraham was even
here."
[Official PA TV, June 3, 2016]
In another recent televised talk, Abbas voiced two additional
falsehoods, first speaking about an ancient Canaanite-Palestinian people with a
6,000-year-old history, and then adding that this ancient people invented an
alphabet:
"This
land was never without a people, as we have been planted in its rocks and dust
and hills since the beginning of civilization and writing and the invention of
the Canaanite-Palestinian alphabet more than 6,000 years ago."
[Official PA TV, May 14, 2016]
Writing was only invented around 3,500 BCE. The earliest Canaanite
alphabet, considered to be the ancestor of most modern alphabets, is dated to
around 1,500 BCE.
In Al-Habbash's talk last Friday, he added yet another falsehood,
denying the well-documented Jewish history in the land of Israel:
"They
[the Jews] claim that there was a Temple here. Those are unfounded claims,
myths, and rumors."
[Official PA TV, June 3,
2016]
Two
months ago, Al-Habbash also spoke about this alleged 5,000-year-old
"history," claiming Palestinians were "the first to reside in
this land":
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"The
Palestinians have been on this land for 5,000 years. Of course, we were the
first to reside in this land. The first to reside in it. There was no one
before us. Never was there a period in this history of this land when we were
not in it. Over the course of these millennia, many have passed through this
land and left. History has turned the page on them, but the land remained as
well as its people and its true owners who never changed. This occupation is a
transient thing, despite the pain and suffering."
[Official PA TV, April 1, 2016]
Palestinian
Media Watch has documented the PA's historical
revision in detail for years.
In 2014, Al-Habbash presented this fabricated history more in
detail, adding that Israel's existence is destined to end and that Israel will
leave because all other "nations" who came to "this land"
were temporary and left. According to Abbas' advisor Israel is like other
"foreigners... Crusaders... Tatars" and "will pass":
"We
have been on this land for 5,000 years, perhaps the Palestinian nation itself.
Of course, over the course of all these years and long centuries, for over
5,000 years, many empires and nations came to this land, to Jerusalem, one
after the other. They came and went, lived here for a certain period of time,
and then left. But the essential substance that remained - like the rocks of
this land, like the grains of sand of this land, like the water of this land,
like the air of this land, like the olive tree of this land - the essential
substance that stayed is the Palestinian people. There was no period in history
without the presence of the Palestinian people on this land. We are the salt of
this earth, we are its essence, we are its air and water and we will never
leave it. Many transients left and will leave... This land is ours. The Nakba (i.e., "the
catastrophe," Palestinian term for establishment of State of Israel),
believe me, the Nakba
will pass, just as the others who passed. The foreigners, the imperialism of
the Crusaders, lived here for more than 92 years, and then scattered and left.
The Tatars came and then left. Others came and left and the land remained with
its people, its sons. The Palestinians remained in Palestine, and they will
stay until Allah inherits the earth."
[Official PA TV, May 16,
2014]
PA leaders use this false historical narrative to indoctrinate
their people to deny Jewish history in the land and instead adopt an imaginary
Palestinian history. This ultimately serves to encourage Palestinians to deny
Israel's right to exist and is the basis for Palestinian claims to the land. As
Abbas said:
"The
Palestinians existed before Abraham. So why don't you recognize my right?"
[Official PA TV, March 21,
2016]
The following is a longer
excerpt of the PA's historical revision as presented by Al-Habbash last week:
Mahmoud Abbas' advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs, Mahmoud
Al-Habbash: "They [the Jews] claim that there was a Temple here. Those
are unfounded claims, myths, and rumors. However, the problem between us and
them is not a problem of religious or historical narrative. The problem is that
they are thieves. The problem is that they are thieves who stole the land, and
who want to steal the history, but history cannot change and cannot be
falsified. The facts bear witness to it. We have been here for the last 5,000
years, and have not left this land. We have not left this land. Our forefathers
are the monotheist Canaanites and Jebusites. They are the ones who built
Jerusalem, before Abraham was even here."
[Official PA TV, June 3, 2016]
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